Aim of the course
Corporate level managers of marketing are in most sectors of the industry pushed by their companies’ CEO to come up with new ideas for market growth opportunities, and to continuously find ‘better’ ways to organise and to lead projects. Due to this, they spend a great deal of their time, and effort, in identifying project managers, and in developing team-building models, tools and processes. However, the problem is that despite their effort, projects tend to be carried out in a traditional, a repetitive way. According to the contemporary literature in the field of strategy, learning and project management, one explanation to a reluctance to change ‘the way things get done’ lies in a failure to recognize that leading and managing projects are two different things, and that project management needs to become strategic, although it also consists of collection of management tools and practices. The overall objective of the course relates to this proposition. Additionally, it relates to the literature that proposes that managing innovation projects is in essence about knowledge management.

Contents
As indicated by the name, this course consists of two interrelated themes or fields in the literature. During the first part of the course, the meaning of managing innovation projects from a knowledge perspective is explored and discussed. In relation to this, different perspectives, or schools, on project management (PM) and knowledge management (KM) are laid out and discussed. In a second part, the focus is put on PM through the following issues: How to organise, lead and manage projects? How to manage teams and inter organisational relations? How to manage risk? How to audit projects and to learn during and from projects? Within the third part of the course, the key term dealt with is KM. Our approach is an integrated perspective on KM, implying that the following issues are discussed: How to discover knowledge, generate, evaluate share and leverage knowledge within a group and within an organisation? At last, we return to the relatedness between PM and KM by discussing prerequisites for successful projects, as for example human aspects of sharing knowledge and implementing knowledge management initiatives (i.e. change management). During this part, we also recognize the organizational context of projects and of teams by discussing what characterizes project management in a learning organization.

Managing projects and teams strategically
Managing knowledge sharing and development

Progression
The course is directly linked to the course ‘Strategic Leadership and Brand Management’.

Knowledge Management - An Integrated Approach, Ashok Jashapara, 2004, Prentice Hall.
Project Management, Clifford F Gray and Erik W Larson, 2006, McgRaw-Hill

A selection of influential academic articles in the field of project management, innovation and knowledge management:
Fanggi Xu and Tudor Richards, A Predicted Development from Research into Creativity and Management , Creativity and Innovation Management, September 2007, Volume 16 Issue 3 Page 216-228,
Ming-Huei Chen, Entrepreneurial Leadership and New Ventures: Creativity in Entrepreneurial Teams
Creativity and Innovation Management,Sep2007, Vol. 16 Issue 3, p239-249
Seppo Hânnien and Ilkka Kauranen, A Multidimensional Product-Concept Model Enhancing Cross-Functional Knowledge Creation in the Product Innovation Process: The Case of the Suunto t6 Training Wrist Computer, Creativity and Innovation Management; Dec2006, Vol. 15 Issue 4, p400-409
Astrid Heidemann Lassen, Frank Gertsen and Jens Ove Riis, The Nexus of Corporate Entrepreneurship and Radical Innovation, Creativity and Innovation Management, December 2006 - Vol. 15 Issue 4, pages 359–372
Mats Holmquist, Managing Project Transformation in a Complex Context INCLUDEPICTURE "http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/templates/jsp/_synergy.2/images/free.gif" \* MERGEFORMATINET
Creativity and Innovation Management; Mar2007, Vol. 16 Issue 1, p46-52